premjan

Non-fiction can also count as literature.

Chris Weimer

Anyone who has not read the Psalms in their original Hebrew misses out on some of the best poetry ever written.

butswana

It's been my experience that so-called "great" literature is boring as all fuck.
That alone would qualify the Bible as great literature in spades.

Steve Weiss

The bible as literature question raises more questions. Are we talking about style or substance? Form or content? Is nonsense said well, enough to classify a written work as great? Great compared to what? Are impossible stories enhanced and validated because there is an interesting plot and characterization? I, for one, would just toss fiction peddled as fact into the nearest garbage can. The bible is only a cultural and historical curiosity. L. Ron Hubbard is just as good or bad as the case my be.

Malachi151

It contains selected bits of good literature, but since its a collection you obviously can't judge the whole thing together.

The problem is putting it on a pedestal.

Reading bits from the Bible along side other works of the same time from the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians, Chinese, etc., is fine, and I think that if one does that they find that most of what's in the Bible doesn't stack up against those writings.

Some of the stuff, from old and new, is okay literature I would say, and some even contains good ideas.

HeretiKc

Some of the earlier Psalms sound like straight up Canaanite mythology (and basically are Canaanite myth, according to F.M. Cross and others).

I wouldn't miss it for anything. That YHWH fellow sure knows how to turn heads.

Malachi151

Aside from the majority of time when God and the Hebrews were committing genocide, there is a lot of good Hebrew stuff because there were so many times when they were oppressed, and thus they have a lot of writings about justice, and fairness, and concern for the poor, and being the underdog, etc.

I view a lot of the ancient Hebrew stuff as similar to American blues, inspired by the oppression and slavery of the blacks in America. That type of oppression often leads to insightful and inspirational ideas, and I think that that's what we find in the "good parts" of Hebrew literature.

Chili

I'll have you know that there is nothing else. Wisdom is knowledge retained and that is where art finds it beauty in all forms of expression. Hence, philosophy is the finest of fine arts.

HeretiKc

I believe that, in order for something to truly be called wisdom, it must have a level of both practical applicability and universality. Much of the content of both the Hebrew Bible and in emerging Christian doctrine lacked both of these--the Hebrews could not give up the mythological gods of their fathers; the Christians (early, at least) could not give up their hopes for the non-existent Day of Reckoning, when finally All was revealed in a flash of inexpressible Novelty and Finality.

figuer

Considering that it has such an eminent, unerring author, the Holy Spirit it self, it certainly should be considered great literature.

Any flaw it might seem to posses, like the ceaseless, monotonous repetitions, the underdeveloped prose, the inconsistencies in plot structure, the incoherent wailings of the prophets, etc. etc. etc. should only be taken as examples that the Holy Spirit's literary talent is beyond comprehension by mere mortal minds.

Since blasphemy against the Holy Sprite is an unforgivable sin, I must warn ye all that daring to even consider applying any of the notions of literary criticism to a book of his authorship would surely earn you entrance in the dark pits of Sheol.